


Collimation

by qualamity



Series: We were Always Meant to Live Among the Stars [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Anxiety, Don’t copy to another site, Fluff, Impact Play, Knife Play, M/M, Multi, but it's minor, d/s dynamics, elements of non-sexual BDSM
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-06
Updated: 2019-03-06
Packaged: 2019-11-12 15:55:10
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,324
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18013844
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/qualamity/pseuds/qualamity
Summary: Collimation (noun): to realign the lenses of a microscope for optimal performanceWhen Harry feels wrong inside, he knows who will make him feel better.





	Collimation

**Author's Note:**

> Betaed by [trashgoblinwizardparty](https://archiveofourown.org/users/trashgoblinwizardparty) who catches all my shameful typos and makes this readable! Big thanks to the livewrite observers for reading as I wrote this.

Harry shifted in his chair, trying to ignore the clawing need inching up his arms. He dug his nails into his palms and pushed away the growing sense of urgency expanding inside him for absolutely no reason, throwing himself into work. Finally, when everything on his agenda for the next two weeks was cleared, he entered a com code into his device from memory and waited. 

“Hello?” Cedric answered from the other end. 

“Hey, it’s me. Promise I’m sober this time,” Harry said, words light despite the fear threatening to clog his throat. He swallowed. “Just wanted to hear your voice. What are you doing right now?” 

“Considering making a garden in the front of the house. What do you think about gardening?” 

“I’ve never considered it.” Harry found himself smiling. “What does Tom think about it?”

“Horrified, of course. You know him. Are you working? You should visit this weekend if you can.” 

Harry let out a sigh of relief as he got the invitation he didn’t know he was looking for. He had a standing invitation to go to their home on Freseri, but it still felt nice to know that they wanted him there, hadn’t said that just to be polite when they found his presence invasive. “My shift ends in an hour. I’ll see you soon.” 

* * *

The anxiety built up inside him until he felt like he couldn’t breathe. In a daze, somehow, Harry managed to buy a ticket to Freseri and board the commercial ship without falling into an airlock. He tried to focus on his reader, immerse himself in an adventure novel set in an era before space travel on a planet that no longer held life. When that didn’t work, he switched to work, reviewing the queued cases to see if there were any mercs available and interested even though he had only just done that three hours ago. 

Harry shut his eyes and tried to sleep, but the buzz of conversation around him kept him awake and alert. Why did Freseri have to be a popular tourist trap? 

The two-hour flight felt like a two-day trip, and by the time the ship landed, he was exhausted and ready to curl up between Cedric and Tom, feel them cover him and pin him down with heavy limbs. Harry exited the airfield as fast as he could, pushing through the massive crowd and keeping a death grip on his pack; airfields were rife with easy-pickings and thieves. Outside, he immediately saw Cedric standing next to a hovercar and jogged over. “You didn’t have to come get me.” 

“Of course I did.” Cedric took Harry’s pack without asking and set it in the back before getting into the hovercar. Harry went around and sat in the passenger seat, fingers back to wringing themselves because he had no straps to twist. 

“How was work?” Cedric asked once he pulled onto the airway. 

Harry stared outside the window, watching the purple plants and trees turn into a blur. “It was fine,” he said and shut his eyes. “Everything is fine.” Or everything _should_ be fine. Harry couldn’t understand why it wasn’t, why _he_ wasn’t.

“Tom’s all for you quitting and joining the agency.” 

“Me? Become a spy? After ruining an op and burning two agents?” He barked out a sharp laugh.

“That was two years ago. I’m sure no one remembers anymore. You’re diligent and devoted. Also, that means you could stay on Freseri and live with us.” 

Harry smiled and turned to face Cedric. “Are you asking me to move in with you?” 

Cedric snorted. “Harry, you have a key to our house, a closet with your clothes, and a desk with your paperwork.”

He frowned. He hadn’t thought of it like that, but Cedric was right. Harry had found himself slowly moving in and making them a part of his life. He only spent time in his flat now because he worked on Eytelis and he wasn’t about to make a two-hour commute every day to get to work. “How is your garden? What plans do you have?” 

Cedric hesitated briefly before accepting the abrupt change in subject. “I think some flowers would be nice. The soil quality for the ones I want is frustrating though.” He chattered about getting permits—because of course Tom would want poisonous flowers—and trying to make a way to have the plants co-habitat together without killing one another, and Harry listened and wrapped himself in Cedric’s voice.

But the feeling of _wrongness_ never left. 

They drove to the cottage, and Harry found himself marvelling again at how it seemed so small and peaceful for the three of them when they had never been meant for peace. It suited them regardless. He palmed the security key in his pocket and unlocked the house while Cedric grabbed his pack and followed him in.

Harry never felt awkward here, not even the first time he had come here after being kidnapped, but today, he didn’t know what to do with himself. He felt out of place and lost, adrift in space.

Cedric dropped the pack with a thump and wrapped his arms around Harry. Harry pressed his back against Cedric’s front and shut his eyes, letting Cedric be his lifeline. “Okay?” he murmured against Harry’s ear. 

“Mmm,” Harry hummed, not a yes or a no. 

“Come sit with me as I figure out our mess of a garden.” Cedric took Harry’s hand and led him to the study, where all three of them had a desk. Cedric’s was a sturdy beech wood, wide and strong. He had a big office chair with beige leather cushions, and he settled in it. Harry dropped to his knees and leaned against Cedric’s legs. 

Cedric settled a hand on Harry’s head, petting him lightly. His hand drifted to Harry’s bare neck, tightening briefly before falling away. Harry sighed and snuggled closer. They stayed like that until Tom came home. 

“Why do we work with idiots?” Tom grumbled as he stalked in, tossing his reader on his own desk. Tom’s workspace was composed of a single glass desk that appeared opaque at first but showed hidden lights sparkling when someone looked long enough. 

“You work with idiots,” Cedric responded. “I quit, remember? You could too.” 

Tom made a sound in disgust. “I can’t quit. They’ll fuck it up.”

Cedric laughed. “I never expected you to have a sense of duty.”

“I revolutionised the bloody thing,” Tom grumbled. “I’m not about to step back and let them destroy what I devoted my life to building.” His boots came around the desk and stopped in front of Harry. “Well, what do we have here?”

Harry shivered at his tone and kept his head lowered. 

“Isn’t our pet pretty?” Cedric’s hand drifted to Harry’s head again, and he carded his fingers through the strands before tugging a little. “He’s not having the best day though.” 

“Maybe we could make it better.” 

Harry let out a whimper, aroused by the dark promise in their words.

“Up,” Tom ordered and swept out of the room. 

Harry climbed to his feet and stumbled out, breath quickening in anticipation for what they were going to do to him. His cock was already half-hard from the thought of having Tom and Cedric’s intense attention focused on him, and need pooled in his gut. 

The bedroom was the one place free of work for all three of them, and Tom was already inside. He had shrugged off his outer coat and rolled his sleeves up to reveal pale forearms. Harry found himself staring and slapped himself mentally.

He came to a stop before Tom and kept his head angled down, unable to look at and meet Tom’s eyes. It didn’t matter. Tom reached out and lifted his head up with cold fingers. Dark eyes burned him. “What’s wrong, darling?” 

“I don’t—I don’t know.” Harry could never pinpoint a reason for why he ended up feeling like an outsider in his own body, only that he did.

Tom let out a thoughtful hum and dropped his hand. He left Harry standing there as he entered his closet and rummaged around, came back with a coil of rope, the same bright green as his eyes. He took one end and handed the other to Cedric. 

“You’re still dressed,” Tom chided. 

Harry ducked his head. “Sorry, sir.” 

“I suppose we’ll have to fix that as well.” He drew a knife—where did that come from?—and cut through Harry’s shirt.

Harry’s heart leapt to his throat when he felt the kiss of a blade at his back. It took him a moment to realise that Cedric had also found a knife and was methodically cutting away his clothes from the back, mirroring Tom. 

Somehow, Harry felt impossibly safe trapped between two former spies wielding knives.

Once his shirt had fallen to the ground in strips, the two of them wound ropes around his body. The strands were abrasive as they rubbed against his skin. They weren’t tight enough to be constrictive, but he felt resistance every time he took a breath, and he shuddered. 

Tom pushed Harry towards the bed, and he let himself fall backwards, knowing that they would never let anything bad happen to him. Tom finished undressing him with cool efficiency and stepped back. “All yours,” he drawled, nodding at Cedric. 

Cedric sat down on the bed and flipped Harry to his front in a quick move. He pulled Harry over his lap, and Harry blushed at the picture in his mind of what the three of them must look like. “Is this a punishment?” Cedric asked. 

“No, sir.” 

“No. This is realignment.” And his hand came down sharply on Harry’s arse. 

Harry jerked instinctively, trying to escape the sudden pain, but Cedric’s grip on him tightened. No matter how much he squirmed, he couldn’t get away from Cedric’s hand, and eventually, he stopped trying, slumping down and taking everything Cedric wanted to give him.

“One day I’ll use a riding crop on you,” Cedric said. “I think you’ll like it. Maybe you’ll even come.” His nails dug into Harry’s arse where there would definitely be a bruise by tomorrow, and Harry moaned, torn between moving away and leaning back from more. He could never understand his body at this state when he both wanted to escape and craved the pain. But with Cedric holding onto him, Harry couldn’t choose, and in the end, that was what he really wanted. 

“I find it hilarious that you’re the sadist of the two of us when everyone thinks you’re so nice,” Tom drawled. “Is he hard?”

A hand wrapped around his cock, and Harry jerked, but once more, he couldn’t escape. “Yes,” Cedric answered obviously. “He has a bit of a masochist in him.” Cedric’s hand left Harry’s arse and went to his hair. “Pet, tell me how you feel.” 

“Hurts, sir,” Harry mumbled into the bedding. “Good.” He could still feel a clawing need inside him, but it was from arousal rather than anything else.

“Would you like Tom to fuck you?”

“Yes, sir. Please, sir.” He turned his head to the side to look at Tom and widened his eyes in a plea.

“Even if I don’t let you come?” Tom asked, coming closer.

“Whatever you want, sir.” 

Two fingers entered him without warning, and Harry groaned at the stretch, legs opening automatically to try to give Tom better access. 

“Tight,” Tom murmured. “We really should have you visit more. Or maybe one day, I’ll have you put a plug in your arse and go to work like that. You’ll feel it every time you take a step. When you sit down, it’ll press against you. Not deep the way you want it, but just there enough so you can’t ignore it. You’ll think of us every time it moves in you, and you’ll be craving more, but you’ll be too far for us to do anything about it. Will you go to the bathroom and touch yourself?”

Harry groaned and tried to push him against Tom. A hand—Cedric’s?—pressed down on him, preventing him from moving. “No, sir,” he panted. 

“Why not?” 

“Not without permission.” 

“Good, pet. We did a good job training you.”

Harry warmed at the praise. 

Tom withdrew his fingers and went to the bathroom. The sound of running water filled the room, and he came back with a knife in his hand. Harry watched him slice through the ropes, never once cutting Harry. Cedric cradled Harry in his arms and took him to the bathroom, settling him in the tub where Tom had started to draw a bath.

The water was hot, almost scalding, just the way he liked it, and Harry relaxed. “I’m going to get you wet, sir,” he murmured.

“Trying to get us to strip?” Tom asked. 

Harry shot him a cheeky smile. “I like skin. And you’re pretty.” 

“One day, you’ll find a new adjective.” But he stripped down efficiently and joined Harry in the tub while Cedric remained clothed and sitting on the side. 

“Down,” Cedric ordered, pressing Harry’s head back. 

He arched his neck enough to wet his hair from the running water, and felt Cedric squeeze a dollop of shampoo into his hair. Strong fingers massaged his scalp and combed through the strands as Cedric washed his hair. Another pair of hands settled on his body as Tom soaped up his body. He didn’t linger, hands forcing Harry to move the way he wanted and scrubbing efficiently. 

Harry arched his back when Tom found a particularly sensitive spot, and Tom slowed his hands to dig into the tense muscles of his back. 

Cedric turned off the water and rinsed off the shampoo before holding Harry’s body still for Tom’s sudden massage, soaking himself in water. “Tense,” he observed.

Harry nuzzled his neck and let himself become boneless under the pressure of Tom’s hands. 

* * *

They stayed there until the water became lukewarm. Tom dried off quickly with a towel before tugging Harry to his feet and wrapping him in a fluffy green towel, so pale it was almost white. 

“Do you want to wash up?” he asked Cedric as he held Harry close. 

“Yeah. Give me five?” 

Tom led Harry out of the bathroom, shutting the door behind him, and settled back on the bed, leaning against pillows stacked against the headboard. Harry curled up against Tom, head on his chest, listening to his heartbeat. He could hear the muffled sound of the shower through the door and he snuggled closer to Tom. His cock, softened after the bath, was starting to harden again, and Harry resisted the urge to thrust against Tom.

Tom clearly felt evidence of Harry’s arousal, and his hand drifted to Harry’s nape and tightened slightly. “Remember when you used to wear a collar for me?” 

Harry stiffened at the thought of the Black Diamond, but Tom didn’t sound mad. Harry knew that there were still times when Tom was furious about early retirement, but he never blamed Harry. “And a lead, sir,” he added cautiously. 

“Would you like one? Embedded with our names. You’d have to wear high necks at work so others don’t see, but you’d know you belong to us completely.” 

Harry moaned at the thought, and Tom’s hand squeezed a little. “Down, pet,” he ordered. “You wouldn’t want to leave Cedric out of this, would you?” 

“No, sir.” He trembled from the effort of not rubbing against Tom for much-needed friction.

After an eternity, the shower finally turned off, and Cedric stepped out. It was ridiculous for Harry to find anyone attractive while wearing pyjamas with tiny smiling suns, but he couldn’t look away from Cedric. He had bought those for Cedric at the last sun festival, but this was the first time he saw them worn. Harry wanted to cuddle with Cedric and watch a trashy action movie on the holoscreen while Tom lambasted the action and plot. 

But then Tom’s free hand drifted down and squeezed Harry’s still-hard cock lightly, and Harry let out a whine. Okay, maybe he wanted to watch the trashy movie with Tom inside him. 

“Took you long enough,” Tom complained lightly. “Our pet is desperate for attention.” 

Cedric let out a laugh and moved onto the bed. “We trained him better than that.” 

“Sorry, sir,” Harry gasped out. “I’ll be good. I promise.” 

“Oh, Harry, you’re always good for us.” Cedric manoeuvred Harry onto his back and pressed his lips to Harry’s in a chaste, loving kiss. 

Tom tugged Harry away from Cedric and sucked hard on Harry’s neck, definitely leaving a bruise that would not fade by the time he needed to go back to work. Harry gasped and arched, giving Tom more space. 

“Please, sir, please,” he gasped. 

“Please what, darling? You have to use your words.” Tom set Harry on top of his lap, his cock pressed right against Harry’s hole. 

Harry groaned, the words refusing to come out. “I can’t say things the same way you can.”

“I want you to say things the way you do, not the way I do,” Tom said. “I want to fuck you, not myself.” 

Cedric laughed. “Don’t you think you should be nice? He’s already desperate.” 

Tom let out a full-body laugh that went straight to Harry’s cock, making him harder. “You? Telling me to be nice? During sex?” 

“Cedric is perfectly nice,” Harry felt the need protest. 

Tom pinched one of Harry’s nipples and twisted it, making Harry yelp. “I’d say I’d make you regret that, but I think Cedric feels a need to defend his honour.” He adjusted his grip on Harry, keeping one arm across his upper chest, almost at his neck, the other around his stomach. 

Harry was trapped. 

Cedric took out a thin stick and flicked a switch on the side. It let out a low buzz, and Harry whimpered as he watched Cedric approach. He touched the wand to Harry’s nipple, the same one Tom had abused and the vibrations hurt in just the right way. He moved the wand down Harry’s body, running lines down his abdomen. It tickled, and Harry squirmed, unable to resist the urge to get away, but Tom kept him still for Cedric’s attention. 

The wand vanished, and Harry slumped down in relief and shut his eyes, just to let out a cry when it touched the head of his cock. At the same time, Tom moved his hand down and stroked Harry’s cock. Once. Twice. 

He came. 

At the same time, Tom’s lubed cock—when had he taken the time to do that?—slid inside him, and Harry groaned as Tom flipped him to his front and took him roughly, the stretch almost too much. His cock brushed Harry’s prostate a few times, sending bursts of pleasure to his cock, but he was too tired to get hard again, and all he could do was lie there and take it.

Tom came inside Harry and he lowered himself down slowly, taking care not to crush him.

“And we only just bathed,” Cedric commented. 

Tom laughed and pulled out. A moment later, a wet washcloth wiped him down. “We’ll shower again later,” he said and yawned. “Sleep.”

Maybe the order was for Cedric, but Harry let his eyes close and his body relaxed, finally at peace once more. 

“I think I’ll plant some orchids,” Cedric commented as he wrapped himself around Harry’s body. 

Harry peeked a little and saw Cedric kick a leg over Harry’s thighs and lace his fingers with Tom’s. Tom held Cedric’s hand and pulled the blankets over all three of them with the other. “You’d hate orchids,” Tom said lazily. “They die too easy. Why not roses? You like thorns.” 

“I’ll think about it,” Cedric responded and clicked off the light, plunging them into darkness.


End file.
